Deals of the day- Mergers and acquisitions

Sept 30 (Reuters) - The following bids, mergers, acquisitions and disposals were reported by 2000 GMT on Tuesday:

** Johnson & Johnson agreed to pay $1.75 billion in cash to buy privately held Alios BioPharma Inc, which is developing a drug for a common respiratory viral infection in children for which there is no approved treatment.

** U.S. oil company Murphy Oil Corp said it would sell 30 percent of its oil and gas assets in Malaysia for $2 billion in cash to Indonesian state-oil company Pertamina as it cuts overseas holdings to focus on an improving home market.

** EBay Inc plans to spin off its PayPal unit next year, bowing to activist investor Carl Icahn’s argument that the move would free the fast-growing payments business to compete more fiercely in the competitive mobile payments market.

** Hedge fund manager Daniel Loeb’s Third Point LLC has taken a “significant” stake in EBay Inc and had discussions with its chief executive, a source familiar with the matter said.

** French state-owned fund Bpifrance said it was trimming its stake in telecom group Orange by 1.9 percent of the total capital to finance new investments.

** UnitedHealth Group Inc said it agreed to buy MedSynergies, which manages physician practices, adding about 9,300 doctors to the hospital and health system services that its Optum technology-based business currently serves.

** SoftBank has been in talks to take a minority stake in privately held movie studio Legendary Pictures, entertainment trade publication The Hollywood Reporter reported.

** Cement makers Holcim and Lafarge are stepping up plans to shed assets in order to win clearance from competition regulators for their planned mega-merger, including possibly spinning them off into a new company.

** Samsung Electro-Mechanics Co Ltd is set to raise up to 1.16 trillion won ($1.1 billion) by selling via the stock exchange in November its entire stake in affiliate Samsung SDS, the IT services unit of Samsung Group.

** Waypoint Capital, the investment vehicle backed by biotech guru Ernesto Bertarelli, is to buy the remaining stake in Euromedic from private equity firm Montagu, valuing the firm at around 800 million euros ($1 billion), said a source familiar with the negotiations.

** Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp said it would buy Move Inc, the owner of property websites such as Realtor.com, for about $950 million to expand its digital marketing business.

** Norway’s Aker ASA may decide to merge or otherwise restructure two listed units that have seen strong benefits from the U.S. shale oil energy boom, Aker’s Converto investment vehicle said.

** Taiwan’s Cathay Financial Holding Co Ltd is set to acquire a fifth of the Philippines’ Rizal Commercial Banking Corp (RCBC) for about $400 million, the latest sign that Taiwanese financial firms are moving more aggressively to expand outside their home market.

** China Investment Corp will sell part of its stake in Noble Group Ltd at a 5 percent discount, sparking fears it would eventually move to offload most of its holding in the commodity trader. The sale will be priced at S$1.32, the bottom of an indicative price range up to S$1.35, and would be worth about $310 million, according to a source with knowledge of the matter.

** Italian refiner Saras said it had agreed to buy from oil and gas group Eni some processing units of a plant located in Sarroch, where Saras operates one of Europe’s biggest refineries.

** Holding company Gunvor Group said it was offering 3.92 Swedish crowns ($0.54) per share, or 159.5 million crowns, for Swedish forestry company Rorvik Timber.

** Taiwan’s Yuanta Financial Holdings Co Ltd said it had agreed to acquire an Indonesian brokerage for T$211 million ($6.93 million).

** Malaysia’s Sime Darby Bhd, the world’s top oil palm planter by land size, said it has opted not to buy 49 percent of London-listed New Britain Palm Oil from Kulim (Malaysia) Bhd. The company did not give any reason.

** Sports and fashion footwear retailer Star 360 Holdings said that it has received investments from two units of Singapore state investor Temasek Holdings (Private) Ltd . The size of the investments were not disclosed.